By Tim Schuller

( from Buddy Magazine September 2002)

The Dallas label TopCat is receiving the most enthusiastic industry response of its existence for Bust Out by Robin Sylar. Until TopCat got hold of it, this CD by one of Texas’ best and strangest guitarists was a rumor.

You can use a lot of words to describe Sylar’s playing and still feel you haven’t pegged him. You can say that he plays straightup electric blues better most of those who specialize in it. These days everyone and your Uncle Moe does a Hound Dog Taylor spot, few a tenth as well as Sylar who was doing Hound Dog over a decade ago. Same with surf guitar. Since Pulp Fiction scads of bands dug up Dick Dale, the Chantays, the Ventures. Sylar’s been doing that forever.

Robin Sylar

Tricked Out

(Top Cat 0204)

This is Sylar's 2nd CD following up his award winning debut Bust Out, and boy howdy, it's a hoot. Sylar handles guitar, bass, lap steel, organ, piano, harmonica and vocals and is joined in the endeavor by a great big old group of all stars. Fifteen tracks of wildcat hoop hollering craziness. Yeah, we all remember Sylar from the Skulls and the Doyle Bramhall Band, and of course, Krackerjack, which gets a footnote in the blues history books for this among other reasons (seems there was this young cat in the band by the name of Stevie Ray something). Okay, I'm full of bull. I don't really remember him from the Doyle Bramhall Band. But it says it right there in the liner notes so what are you going to do? But it's really Sylar's amazing ability to jam the jazz that should be at the forefront of your brain as you listen to this great new CD.

There are some great choices on board this collection. Check out Sylar tricking out "Iko Iko" or his incredibly delicious take on the Willie Dixon tune "Can't Judge A Book". Sylar puts his own distinct mark on each of the songs, making them his own. The original tunes are rocking as well. Check out "Surf Puppy". Sylar turns out a smoking version of the Rolling Stones tune "Heart of Stone" as well as a killer rendition of the Carman surf standard "Pipeline". There is a wonderful cover of "Sugar Bee" as well as the song that I can no longer hear without wanting to belt Quentin Tarantino in his big ugly mutant chin, "Misirlou". Sylar almost makes me want to forget the association!

Truth be known, this disc is a lot of fun. It's powerful and energetic. It's dazzling. Sylar is an outstanding performer and this CD proves it. Long board or short, catch the next big wave out to your local record hut and snatch this puppy up. - Bill Fountain

July 2004 Southwest Blues

From Real Blues Magazine

Robin Sylar - Tricked Out

TopCat Records
TC 0204

Yes, we ranted and raved about Sylar in RB #25 and now we have an opportunity to do it again and even louder than before. Wes Race's favorite Texas guitar slinger has a persona that one can compare with other slightly off-kilter geniuses like Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Thurman Valentine and Hasil Adkins but none of them ever picked up a guitar style that sounded like a cross between Link Wray and U.P Wilson. This is hillbilly roadhouse Blues at its' deranged (but serious!) best and I wish I could think of someone else who occupies that genre but Sylar is the onliest one that comes to mind.

Paint It Blue

Ft. Worth Weekly - Wednesday April 7, 2004

Robin Sylar filters musical sources through a pentatonic prism and arrives at originality.
By Ken Shimamoto

Robin Sylar is a madman. Or at least he plays like one.

The Texas axe-man's blues cred is impeccable: As a youth, he filled his bucket from the same deep well of Delta water as Stevie Ray Vaughan and even went toe-to-toe with SRV when both played together in the rock outfit Krackerjack. After a spell on the West Coast and roadwork with archetypal hippie blues-rockers Canned Heat, Sylar logged time in the Millionaires with Doyle Bramhall in the late '70s, and, in '94, he appeared on Bramhall's epochal Bird Nest on the Ground c.d. Sylar's incendiary performances at the Keys Lounge on Westcreek have made believers out of many blues skeptics. More to the point, he's just released a new full-length, Tricked Out (on Dallas-based Topcat Records), on which his left-of-center ideas and delivery clearly set him apart from the pack of local bluesicians.